Round balers are used for producing bales made from stalk-like agricultural crops. Such round balers have a bale chamber and associated bale forming means. In typical round balers after completion of a bale, a rear door, on which rollers supporting or forming the bale forming means are mounted, is pivoted upward, in order to eject the bale.
Various constructions of round balers have been proposed (see e.g. EP 1 308 078 A1) wherein carrier holding elements support the belt-shaped bale forming means in the lower region of the bale chamber of the round baler. The carrier can be pivoted between this bale-forming position and a bale-ejecting position in which it is pivoted backward and upward and exposes a rear opening of the baler. For such round balers, there are elements, for example, the bale forming means, which move in the rear region during operation.
For such a round baler, DE 102 50 425 A1 proposes a rear protective device in the form of a roller blind, a plate, a tarp, or mesh-like, interconnected chain elements. The protective device is suspended with its upper end on frame extension arms and fixed at its lower end on pivoting braces that are pivoted upward before the ejection of the bale. For this purpose, a separate drive can be provided, or the pivoting braces can be coupled mechanically by means of Bowden cables to the carrier of the carrier. While a roller blind is wound onto an upper shaft, a tarp hangs downward when the pivoting braces are pivoted upward.
One disadvantage of the known protective device lies in that the material is subjected to considerable wear when it is wound or folded up. In particular, tarps made from typical plastic material, such as those used, for example, for covering the truck beds of trucks, quickly form unattractive folds at which they later tear.
The problem forming the basis of the invention is thus seen in providing a round baler in which the disadvantages mentioned above are not present or are present only in a reduced degree.